Beach life: Europe's best beaches 2005

What do you want from your beach? Romance, glamour, solitude . . . even full-scale nudity? Whatever your taste, Jeremy Lazell has the strand to suit

It’s not every day you get to feel superior to people much richer and more beautiful than yourself, so to the beach at Antibes I say, “Thank you.” It was two years ago in July: suncream sparkled on the surf, Las Ketchup blared from a beatbox, Europe’s pretty people packed the sand like bacon on a skillet. Ignore the 16th-century town walls and it could have been Benidorm. Frankly, I felt I could do better.

When it comes to beaches, one man’s better is another man’s bad. There’s always a toddler where you want tranquillity, a wetbike where you need a quiet cove, and if I had a pound for every last year’s party beach that’s this year’s Mary Celeste, I could buy a coastline or twoof my own.

But don’t bin the bikini just yet. From Sutherland to Sardinia, the Côte d’Azur to the Canaries, we’ve scoured Europe’s